Thursday, October 10th, 2013

Yall Know Me

Lo, the Shad event horizon draws nigh

Justin BroadbentOkay, so maybe the build-up hasn’t been that long. The specifics of Shadrach Kobango’s – that’s Shad’s given name, if you didn’t know – new record Flying Colours were only made official two months ago, but since then it’s reasonable to say that anticipation levels have gotten pretty high.

And not that there should have been any doubt, but Flying Colours is pretty great. Like his breakout 2007 album The Old Prince and its equally Polaris-shortlisted 2010 follow-up TSOL, Colours is chock full of fast rhymes, smooth beats, brilliant wordplay, and undeniable fun. One of Shad’s many gifts is how he’s able to rap so specifically about his own personal experiences as a Kenyan-born Rwandan immigrant and make them so universally inclusive. It doesn’t necessarily break any new ground relative to his other albums – at least not one that this not-especially-attuned-to-hip-hop ear can detect – but it’s just as good if not better, and that’s plenty.

An advance stream of the album intertwined with commentary from both Shadrach and CBC’s George Strombolopolous went up available to Canadian audiences at CBC Music, and if you’re not fond of the conversational podcast format a straight stream with accompanying text Q&A went live today. I believe both are geoblocked to Canada, though, so if you live outside the ten provinces and three territories, there had been some talk of a Soundcloud stream so be patient. Maybe read this feature piece at Exclaim in the meantime. Further, with his previously-announced October 19 show at The Opera House well and properly sold out, he’s announced a couple more Toronto-area live appearances in both the near- and long-term; to the former, there’s an in-store at Sonic Boom’s Annex location on the day of release – October 15 – at 7PM, and to the latter, he’s announced his biggest headlining show to date at The Danforth Music Hall on January 31, 2014, tickets ranging from $18.50 to $23.50 in advance. Shad’s going to be everywhere with this record – you may as well join him.

Bound, the debut from Ex-Forest City Lover leader Kat Burns’ new incarnation as Kashka, is coming November 5 and in addition to sharing an excellent first track from the album, she’s plotted out a Fall tour that has two Toronto dates; a solo record release show at The Dakota Tavern on November 6 and a (presumably) full band affair at BLK BOX come December 5. Update: As Ms Kat Kashka mentions in the comments, the Dakota show is as support for Sunparlour Players; the December 5 gig is the actual coming-out party. Plan accordingly.

Pitchfork has a stream of the first sample from Destroyer’s forthcoming Five Spanish Songs and, indeed, it’s a song in Spanish; one of five that will be released on November 29. A solo Dan Bejar plays The Great Hall on November 9.

Wes Marskell of The Darcys talks to Exclaim and NOW about their new album Warring and to Impose about having to deal with an unlicensed soundtrack appearance of the pornographic kind. They’re at The Adelaide Music Hall on October 11.

The Lowest Of The Low have announced the departure of founding guitarist/vocalist Stephen Stanley; it’s assumed by their not declaring the band is breaking up again that they’ll soldier on with guitarist Ron Hawkins and drummer David Alexander as the remaining original members; original bassist John Arnott left the band back in 2007 or so.

In hounour of the 20th anniversary of Nirvana’s In Utero, Toronto’s Hand Drawn Dracula has compiled a tribute album to the record featuring some of the best and brightest of the local indie scene, including Fresh Snow, Odonis Odonis, Hooded Fang, and more. Stream it or download it in exchange for an email.